There’s always a tendency to treat a play written more than 25 years ago as a period piece, which means its theme may also appear dated. But Palomar theater professor John Polak felt “Inherit the Wind,” written in 1955 by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee, was timeless. Nothing convinced him of that more than when he recently heard a story on National Public Radio.

“The report was about how schools in the state of Tennessee were allowed to teach creationism if they wanted to,” Polak said. “There are even some states where they’re rewriting textbooks so they’re leaving evolution on the cutting room floor. It’s amazing that we’re still in contention about this almost 100 years later.”

This movement is almost the exact opposite of the one depicted in the play, a fictionalized version of the 1925 “Scopes Monkey Trial.” Tennessee high schoolteacher John T. Scopes was arrested and put on trial for teaching evolution in school, which at the time was against state law. While the opposing attorneys in the play are given fictional names, they are based on the real-life, nationally prominent lawyers who faced off in the Scopes case, Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan.

While evolution is the subject on trial in the 1955 play, it’s really a metaphor for that era’s McCarthy trials, where freedom of thought and expression was considered criminal.

“It’s really about the right to think,” he said. “It’s about either having an open mind or conforming, and the need to be aware of anything that would inhibit the freethinking mind. We have to be careful if there comes a time when it looks as though some are clamping down on free thought.”

Because he wanted to give the play a more contemporary feel, Polak decided to add a few flourishes unexpected in a 1950s play. For instance, there will be a live band on stage. The play already includes two songs, but the band will also underscore the action.

Polak also trimmed the 3½-hour script to two hours, a choice that he said made it “leaner and meaner” and makes the focus more on the debate. The cuts also allowed for a smaller cast of 21. He also cast several women in roles traditionally played by men, including the character of the lead lawyer.

Polak calls the show “cerebral and a thinking man’s play,” and that’s how he hopes the audience will respond.

“I want them talking about the issues and asking questions about the world we live in,” he said. “Through the characters, we see the dangers of mass conformity. We see why it’s so important to speak one’s mind and think freely. That’s the heart of this play.”